Weekly vs. Monthly Liquor Inventory: What Works Best?

The trade-offs of each schedule, and a simple hybrid that catches problems fast without eating your week.

Every bar has to decide how often to count. Count too rarely and problems hide for weeks. Count too often and your team spends hours with a clipboard. Here's how the two options compare.

Monthly inventory

• Pro: Less time spent counting.
• Pro: Lines up with monthly accounting.
• Con: A problem can run for 30 days before you notice it.
• Con: Hard to tell which week, shift, or product caused a gap.

Weekly inventory

• Pro: You spot over-pouring, theft, and price jumps within days.
• Pro: Counts feed straight into weekly ordering.
• Pro: Less cash tied up, because you order closer to what you use.
• Con: More counting time unless the process is quick.

The hybrid most bars should use

1. Count your top 20–30 products, usually liquor and draft, every week.
2. Do a full count of everything once a month.
3. Spot-check high-dollar bottles any time something feels off.

This catches most of your money at risk each week without a full count every Monday.

Tips for faster counts

• Count in shelf order, the same path every time.
• Count before opening or after close, never during service.
• Use tenths for partial bottles (0.1 to 0.9) so everyone estimates the same way.
• Split the bar into sections between two people.

How NIX86 handles it

NIX86 gives you an easy-to-use inventory tool that lets you set whichever counting days fit your schedule. It automatically pulls in your starting numbers from your last count and adds in all products ordered since. From there, you just add your sales numbers—simply export your product mix report from your POS and upload it directly into NIX86.

$74.99/month flat after your trial. No credit card to start.